Western Michigan denied upset after replay puts 1 second back on the clock

Several blue-blood college football teams were on upset alert during the first weekend of the college football season. Western Michigan University, out of the Mid American Conference (MAC) was battling cross-state big brother, the University of Michigan.

A Big Ten crew was officiating this game, lead by Jim Wharrie. Wharrie is a former PAC 12 official, who joined the Big Ten after referee Ron Snodgrass became the national officiating coordinator earlier this month.

Late in the fourth quarter, Western Michigan had a 9-7 lead and the nation tuned in to see if Western Michigan could pull off the upset. The Broncos kicked a field goal to stretch their lead to 12-7, forcing Michigan to score a touchdown.

Michigan drove down the field, and had time for one more heave to the endzone. The pass fell incomplete and it looked like Western Michigan scored the biggest upset in their history.

Then…

So, Michigan got a one-second reprieve and their second prayer was answered in the affirmative.

According to timing rules, when a player steps out of bounds and doesn’t re-establish in bounds, the play is dead and the clock stopped when that player touches a loose ball, such as a pass. In college football, a player is re-established in bounds when he has a foot in bounds and no part of his body is touching out of bounds. (In the NFL, this is two feet.)

McAulay stated that the only way the clock should have one second was if the visible clock shown on the replay (which is a fixed camera inset from the production truck) was out of sync with replay angle they showed on the broadcast. The replay command center has a direct source for the official time that does not rely on the network.

The Hawkeye system is a high-tech video replay system that pulls in all visual angles and timecodes the game clock with the video. This is separate from the visual depiction by the broadcast network which replay can use as a fallback if the encoded time fails.

After the Michigan touchdown, Wharrie declared the game over. McAulay tried to make sense out of what the replay officials might have seen. He had a hard time trying to do so.

Before the network signed off, McAulay told the TV audience that an NBC producer informed him that the replay angle that was broadcast and the clock were in sync.

A person familiar with Big Ten replay operations told Football Zebras, “The command center has a sync of the film with the game clock. They have to have a clear shot of ball touching hand and 1 on clock. TV should be in sync but apparently it was not. Only can hope the clock was truly in sync.”

We also were told that there are two technicians to check on all angles and timecoding at least twice per game.

Update: The Big Ten released the video from the replay command center when the decision was made to add one second to the play clock.

There is one more thing that might have helped this situation. Wharrie simply said “there is one second on the clock. Third down.” He might not know how close this call is, but it might have helped if he would have explained to the audience how replay arrived at one second left in the game.

One thing is for sure. Western Michigan fans (and those rooting against the University of Michigan) thought the Broncos should have won.

The Big Ten issued a statement with the replay video feed:

Following video review, it was determined Western Michigan’s #18 started his jump from an established out-of-bounds position (left foot) and made contact with the ball with one second remaining on the clock. As shown in the provided video of what was viewed during the replay process, a side-by-side view of the play and the game clock, using a direct shot of the game clock in the stadium, was used to determine the final ruling.

Eighty-five minutes prior to the game, all broadcast cameras used for the replay system, including the camera on the game clock, are synced using a strobe system to ensure all cameras are aligned.

Per NCAA Football rule 4-2-3-a, “A ball not in player control, other than a kick that scores a field goal, is out of bounds when it touches the ground, a player, a game official or anything else that is out-of-bound, or that is on or outside a boundary line.” and thus the clock is stopped.